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172 students, 13 facilitators, 8 themes and 5 days: an exciting mix for some real magic to happen!

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Our fantastic team of facilitators is ready, we have been reviewing and creating new content since June last year and everything is now ready. We are definitely set for a fantastic 11th edition of our Youth Social Entrepreneurship (YSE) program!

We were the first UWC school to offer a design thinking course for social impact for the whole Year 12 cohort of students and we remain one of the few in the UWC movement to do so. Year 12 students, make the best out of this training opportunity and the networking you'll be able to do! We truly hope you enjoy it and great things (and projects!) come out of it!

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We continue to celebrate our 10th Anniversary

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We continue to celebrate our 10th Anniversary

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Little could we imagine in 2015 when we first launched the YSE Program that this learning opportunity would remain as relevant today as it did then, if not more, given the current realities our world is facing.

In the course of this decade, over 1,700 students have undertaken this design thinking training and besides some of the YSE projects still in place, hundreds of alumni have successfully applied the changemaking skills learnt at UWC Maastricht to implement projects in their home communities via the Student Initiative Fund (SIF) or Go Make A Difference (GoMAD) to name but a few. We thank the numerous staff and returning alumni that over the years have joined the YSE Team of Facilitators for all their contributions and inspirational mentoring. We look forward to what the future can bring and to strengthening collaborations with our local partners in Maastricht.

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Last year's themes have been revised and adapted to this year's team of facilitators, a dream team of 13 educators that bring experience and expertise.

The blurring of boundaries between most of these themes will allow for more interconnection and collaboration. All the themes are also linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Students were asked in September to make a selection of themes they would like to explore, in order of preference, to facilitate making the groups for this year and to ensure they engage fully motivated in the program. The majority of the students will be joining their 1st and 2nd choice theme group.

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Youth Against Racism Maastricht (YARM) with some of their members

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Some examples of projects designed during the YSE Program

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Some examples of projects designed during the YSE Program

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YARM, now known as SPARK, was one of the projects resulting from the Anti-Racism theme group in 2023, which was implemented by 12 Year 12 students in March of that year and then became a CAS Service. The team organised workshops in 2 local high schools about diversity, racism and micro-aggressions and hosted a meeting in our school with the National Coordinator Against Discrimination and Racism. The team pitched their project solution at the YSE 2023 Community Panel to make the initiative well known and potentially access the funds allocated to one of the awards. In order to make it manageable for the pitching, the brave Laurene, Amna, Vasiliki, Ayush and Iacopo were the team members presenting. Based on the potential that this project had to raise awareness among youth and other groups about racism experienced by youth in and outside schools in The Netherlands and thus make this issue openly discussed, the jury voted for Youth Against Racism Maastricht to receive the Best Potential for Social Impact Award.

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Project R.E.D., from the Gender & Sexuality theme group, won the Best Overall Idea Award at the YSE 2023 Community Panel. Then Year 12 students Lou, Julia and Lua presented the project.

Their project, now a CAS Service at our school, is still implemented in the bathrooms of the Secondary School building tackles the issue of "period poverty", which affects some of the menstruating students in our school. Their response to the lack of free menstrual products provided by the school was to establish a shared system for donation and availability of menstrual products in bathrooms of all floors in the Secondary building and in mensa. This project relies on the sponsor(s) and a sharing system, which has been implemented to incorporate a circular economy, to establish a more sustainable project. Additionally, the team aimed to provide as many environmentally friendly products as they could from brands such as Yoni (a brand that produces 100% biodegradable and cotton-based products).

With the 100euros the team was awarded and additional fundraising, Project R.E.D. has continued to provide sanitary products for those students that need them.

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Year 13 student's project selected for Go Make A Difference (GoMAD) grant

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Year 13 student's project selected for Go Make A Difference (GoMAD) grant

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At the YSE 2023 Community Panel, Year 13 student Samuella Kabila, from D.R.C., was handed the diploma of the GoMAD grant of £1000 to help students make a difference in their home countries or communities they know well. Samilla, after graduating from UWC Maastricht, implemented that summer the project Le Futur est à Nous (LFN) in Kinshasa. It was conceived as a two-week summer camp that took place from the end of June to the beginning of July and brought together teenagers living in Kinshasa around the matter of plastic waste management. Through discussions, activities, film screenings, and games, participants were sensitized and equipped with materials and information on how to contribute to a sustainable future in Kinshasa by recycling their plastic waste.

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YSE is an inspirational platform to learn, among many things, about what other youth are doing around the world and in The Netherlands to bring about solutions for the challenges they identify in their communities.
Kids Rights is a Dutch Foundation that awards every year an International Children's Peace Prize to promote the advocacy and action work of at least 3 outstanding young changemakers who are selected for the final. Nobel Peace Prize Laureates are generally invited to announce the winning project.
The projects of all the nominees are great examples of can be achieved with will, hard-work and the support of a committed team.

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KidsRights empowers changemakers

Together with children as changemakers, we inspire and empower a global movement for children's rights. We act, research and speak out. Together, we move the world.

We are proud to introduce you to the International Children's Peace Prize Nominees 2023!

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Together with children as changemakers, we inspire and empower a global movement for children's rights. We act, research and speak out. Together, we move the world.

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Changemaking Stories from Sub-Saharan Africa

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Changemaking Stories from Sub-Saharan Africa

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Storytelling is a crucial part of our program, we need to share stories, to learn from each other and others who have achieved success in reaching their goals, but also about failing forward, when we can and should learn from our mistakes.
Across Sub-Saharan Africa, young people are driving positive change for prosperity. There is so much to learn from these regional heroes!

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Stories from Sub-Saharan Africa | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

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Across the region, young people from Nigeria to Kenya, South Africa to the Democratic Republic of the Congo are driving positive change for prosperity.

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From the UK to Romania, Italy to Norway, young people are driving social change across Europe. Read, watch, and learn from the stories of changemakers to learn about their unique journeys, challenges, and lessons learned along the way.

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From the UK to Romania, Italy to Norway, young people are driving social change across Europe. Read, watch, and learn from the stories of changemakers to learn about their unique journeys, challenges, and lessons learned along the way.

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Stories from Europe | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

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From the UK to Romania, Italy to Norway, young people are driving social change across Europe. Read, watch, and learn from the stories of changemakers to learn about their unique journeys, challenges, and lessons learned along the way.

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Young people across Latin America are rising up for the environment, human rights, economic prosperity, and social equality. From Mexico to Brazil, Argentina to Colombia, changemakers are everywhere.

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Young people across Latin America are rising up for the environment, human rights, economic prosperity, and social equality. From Mexico to Brazil, Argentina to Colombia, changemakers are everywhere.

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Stories from Latin America | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

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Young people across Latin America are rising up for the environment, human rights, economic prosperity, and social equality. From Mexico to Brazil, Argentina to Colombia, changemakers are everywhere.

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Stories of changemakers from the region and how they started on their journeys.

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Stories from the Middle East and North Africa | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

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Rofida is one of the winners of the 2019 Young ChangemakHERs Transformative Journey and Competition. She has been actively working on shifting community mindsets in Cairo to raise awareness about the importance of First Aid by increasing people's access to training. Despite the challenges in 2020...

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From promoting financial literacy to developing apps for mental health, young people across India are paving the way for a more inclusive, healthier, and happier future.

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Stories from India | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

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From promoting financial literacy to developing apps for mental health, young people across India are paving the way for a more inclusive, healthier, and happier future.

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Through generations of movement building and unifying diverse groups, young changemakers exemplify why every young person must find their power to create positive change.

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Stories from Indonesia | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker

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Through generations of movement building and unifying diverse groups, young changemakers exemplify why every young person must find their power to create positive change.

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A great way to start exploring your theme of interest is to watch one or more TEDTalks, to listen to new perspectives and current data.

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Lilly Singh: “A seat at the table” isn’t the solution for gender equity

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Women and girls are conditioned to believe success is “a seat at the table.” Creator, actress and author Lilly Singh thinks we need to build a better table. In this hilarious, incisive talk, Singh traces the arc of her career from up-and-coming YouTuber to history-making late-night talk show host, offering four ways to build a more inclusive society where girls are encouraged and empowered to do great things.

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UN World Youth Report: Youth Social Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda

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UN World Youth Report: Youth Social Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda

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For those who love to go into detail: full report on how Youth Social Entrepreneurship can contribute to achieve the Global Goals or Sustainable Development Goals.

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Youth Social Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda | United Nations For Youth

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The World Youth Report: Youth Social Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda seeks to contribute to the understanding of how youth social entrepreneurship can both support youth development and help accelerate the implementation of the SDGs. To do so, the Report first synthesizes the current discussion on social entrepreneurship and anchors it in the context of the 2030 Agenda.

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The Youth Mayors Field Guide was a project UWC Maastricht was part of and written for students who want to make change in their communities. It is intended to be a flexible source of information, instruction and tools that can be used by students, in groups or alone, to investigate and initiate change. It can also be used in or out of the classroom by teachers and mentors who are supporting students with their projects.

Some parts of the Toolkit are currently unavailable due to the transition from Google to Microsoft that the school underwent last school year. We hope to recover all of it as it is an incredible resource for learning and its author, Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann will visit us during Climate Week in November.

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Youth Mayors Field Guide - 1 Investigating overview

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Figure 1. Focus Group Discussion Nepal (Irene2005 CC BY 2.0)

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Day 1 - Awakening our bodies with social purpose

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Day 1 - Awakening our bodies with social purpose

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This morning all Year 12 students gathered in assembly at 8:10h. This was the kick off of the YSE Training and we begun with some physical stretches full of meaning:

"UP for high ideals

DOWN for grassroots

OUT for outreach

IN for inner peace

and ALL AROUND for love"

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What is Social Entrepreneurship all about?

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What is Social Entrepreneurship all about?

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Some inspiration for our students as they slowly start to consider feasible solutions with high social, environmental and cultural impact!

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Day 1 has been all about exploring our different themes and the global and local challenges we face. To help students with their brainstorming, we have used the ‘Problem Tree Analysis’ technique. The visits to local organisations and projects today and tomorrow will also help in understanding much better the complex realities in Maastricht, related to each specific theme.

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Step 1: Identifying the focal issue with ‘Problem Tree Analysis’ technique

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We're really grateful for Jule Schnakenberg (UWCM alumna of Class of 2016) to have presented to the students in the Planet&Climate, Peace and Resilient Communities theme groups today, we are certain they enjoyed all her inputs and experience in changemaking. Here more info about the legal campaign she and Aoife Fleming (also Class of 2016 alumna) have been working on for the last 5 years (WY4CJ), in support of the Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change. Last July a historical step in the process was achieved when –after the public hearings of November 2024-  the International Court of Justice delivered its long-awaited advisory opinion regarding the Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change, making clear that States and major polluters have a duty to protect people and take effective action to safeguard the climate system.

Jule is now the Executive Director of this global campaign, which continues to work towards clarifying the obligations of states to protect the rights of current and future generations from the adverse effects of climate change.  Students feedback on this presentation was really touching as they found the talk really inspirational and empowering.

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Climate Emergency and Human Rights: The Relevance of the Inter-American System

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World Youth for Climate Justice is a global Youth led movement campaigning to seek an Advisory Opinion from the World’s Highest Court on Climate Change and Human Rights.

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Health & Wellbeing is one of our theme groups. SDG #3 is especially relevant for campus life

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Expertise from within: school nurse in the YSE Facilitators team

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Expertise from within: school nurse in the YSE Facilitators team

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We are so pleased that our school nurse is co-facilitating the Health&Wellbeing theme group this year. This comes to show how crucial the role of our staff, whether teaching or non-teaching, is in enhancing a UWC education also through experiential learning.

Today the students in this group were provided with a great overview of pressing health issues in the city of Maastricht.

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The Arts & Culture theme group visited today the Opera Zuid organisation of South of Netherlands to understand how such an organisation works and learn about their challenges and successes.

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Opera Zuid is een innovatief en ondernemend operagezelschap dat vanuit Maastricht avontuurlijke opera maakt voor een breed publiek, zowel op het grote theaterpodium als in de lokale gemeenschappen. Met projecten zoals de Buurt Opera Malpertuis (BOM) leggen we een directe verbinding met de buurt en creëren we betekenisvolle culturele ervaringen.

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DEI/Gender&Sexuality theme groups Guest Speakers Day 1

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DEI/Gender&Sexuality theme groups Guest Speakers Day 1

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Today both the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and the Gender & Sexuality theme groups joined together to attend a presentation by Casey O'Dell, Communications Advisor of the Diversity&Inclusivity Office at Maastricht University and Branislav Stevonka, student assistant. The talk brought in issues of intersectionality, policy in practice and scaling work that is being planned for the coming months. We are grateful for our ongoing collaboration with different departments at Maastricht University and look forward to strengthening those ties.

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Education&Learning Guest Speaker - Day 1

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Education&Learning Guest Speaker - Day 1

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Audrey Eyo -Rise Global Fellow'21, Tilting Futures Fellow'22, UWC Robert Bosch Class of 2025 alumna and Resolution Fellow'25- spoke to our Education&Learning theme group students today. Her changemaking experience (founder of Fit as a Fiddle), powerful public speaking skills and clear purpose resonated with our students, who felt very empowered and inspired by the talk. Audrey is currently studying Governance, Economics & Development at Leiden University College in The Heague. She is an aspiring policymaker, passionate about educational reform as a tool for bridging the gap between talent and opportunity. We thank Audrey for her time today and hope to meet her in person soon.

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Rise is a program that finds promising young people and provides opportunity for life as they work to serve others.